Rhonda's story

Rhonda came to the Oral and Maxillofacial Unit in 1990 when she was 20 years old because of persistent pain in her jaw joints caused by her upper and lower teeth not meeting. The problem lay in the faulty relationship of her upper and lower jaws. The lower jaw was slewed to the right, whilst the upper jaw and nose were slewed to the left. Her upper jaw and face also looked sunken back and hollow compared to the lower jaw. She was disturbed by her facial appearance although the initial reason that she came for treatment was the pain in her jaw joint.

Following an eighteenth-month period of orthodontics she underwent and her upper jaw and nasal bones were also fractured. Her upper jaw was brought forward and fixed in place with titanium metal plates. The nose was straightened and the lower jaw was then fixed in its new position in relation to the upper jaw so that the teeth met properly.

Rhonda describes the transformation in her life as fantastic. She was not only cured of her jaw joint pain but she now feels she looks like the rest of her family.

Rhonda studied flower arranging and now has her own florist's business. She is married to Russell and they have a daughter, Molly.

Noora's story

Noora was the 12-year-old daughter of a fisherman. She came to the UK from Omani for treatment of this benign tumour on the right-side of her face (plexiform neurofibroma), which had destroyed the vision in her right eye and created a massive asymmetry of the right-side of her face. Her right eye was positioned much lower than the left, pendulous lumps of skin containing abnormal proliferations of nerve and fibrous tissue hung down from the right side of her skull and face, and her right upper jaw and lower jaws had grown down much more than the left in response to these abnormal tumours.

When she came to the UK for treatment she used to wear a hood over her face and always wore black clothes. Her father recounts that as a very young girl she had been cheerful and outgoing, but as the tumour had grown she had become increasingly introverted and succeeded less well at school. She also had continuous pain from the tumour and its pressure on her face and brain.

In 1994 she underwent surgery by lain Hutchison and his neurosurgical colleague, Ian Sabin in which the neurofibroma was removed, the eye socket was reconstructed and the right eye lifted to a more correct position. At a second operation with John Hungerford, Professor lain Hutchison's ophthalmology colleague, her right upper eyelid was reduced.

Following these two operations, her personality changed dramatically. She started to wear earrings and brightly coloured clothes and no longer covered her face. Her father, who had accompanied her to the UK for treatment, also changed in character and wore a permanent smile.

Mazeeda's story

Mazeda was born in 1995 with a small tumour on the right-side of her face. This was originally thought to be a benign tumour but over the course of the first two years of her life it grew rapidly in size to cause an horrendous swelling on the right-side of her face, which progressed up behind her right eye, pushing it out (proptosis) and compressing the nerve at the back, making her permanently blind in this eye. This was found to be a malignant yolk-sac tumour and she was initially treated with chemotherapy.

Following this she underwent surgery through an incision just in front of her right ear and into her right neck. The malignant tumour was removed from her right eye socket, right upper jaw and right lower jaw in 1998.

After her operation she attended the portrait sitting wearing this beautiful green dress. It was the first full-length portrait that Mark Gilbert made because he felt that this format captured Mazeda much better than a simple head and shoulders pose.

James' story

James developed a skin cancer affecting the left side of his face. After removing the skin, part of his upper lip and some of the underlying bone a flap of skin and lower lip was turned through 1800 to reconstruct his upper lip and cheek (Abbe Estlander flap).